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1. •  
     CommentAuthorV
   • CommentTimeJun 10th 2008

    (2548.1)
   
   (by Mathieu Lehanneur in collaboration with Anthony van den Bossche)
   
   

   
   Local River responds to everyday needs for fresh food that is 100% traceable. It bets on a return to favor of farm-raised freshwater fish (trout, eel, perch, carp, etc...), given the dwindling supplies of many saltwater species due to over-fishing. It also demonstrates the capacity of fish-farmers to deliver their stock live to a private consumer as a guarantee of optimum freshness - impossible in the case of saltwater fish that has been netted.
   
   Local River aims to replace the decorative ‘TV aquarium’ by an equally decorative but also functional ‘refrigerator-aquarium’. In this scenario, fish and greens cohabit for a short time in a home storage unit before being eaten by their keepers, the end-players in an exchange cycle within a controlled ecosystem.
   

   
   
   I recommend you go to Lehanneur's site.
   I would provide direct links, but it is all in flash.
   However, if you select page 28 along the bottom there are some more interesting photos, and a video.
2. •  
     CommentAuthorCyman
   • CommentTimeJun 10th 2008

    (2548.2)
   Very cool stuff, Vanessa. Treehugger has quite a write up on this.

   The plants extract nutrients from the nitrate-rich dejecta of the fish. In doing so they act as a natural filter that purifies the water and maintains a vital balance for the eco-system in which the fish live. The same technique is used on large-scale pioneer aquaponics/fish-farms, which raise tilapia (a food fish from the Far East) and lettuce planted in trays floating on the surface of ponds."

   Absolutely brilliant.
3. •  
     CommentAuthorV
   • CommentTimeJun 10th 2008

    (2548.3)
   Excellent. Thanks, Cyman. I wanted to read more about this, but didn't have time just now to look for it.
   I'm starting to think I should subscribe to Treehugger...
4. •  
     CommentAuthorCyman
   • CommentTimeJun 10th 2008

    (2548.4)
   Yeah, I wanted to take that whole write up from Lehanneur's site and post it in here, but the flash formatting makes it impossible (meaning I tried the right-click and it didn't work), so I searched around a bit. There're a few pictures here
   Anyway, it seems like a brilliant idea; the fish and the plants both perpetuate each other and we eat both parts!
   So thank YOU, Vanessa for sharing.
   This can maybe answer people's questions from the other threads with mounting concern regarding the gas prices in the states and be a reasonable way to grow food in an apartment? Though maybe lettuce and fish isn't quite an ideal diet... at least not at the rate this thing would produce edible portions. Basically, if you have an aquarium and grow lettuce already, this is a good way to save space... Though the basics of this idea seem simple enough, I bet you could do all kinds of things with that set up.
5. • CommentAuthorDewey Decibel
   • CommentTimeJun 10th 2008

    (2548.5)
   Apartment gardening, you say?
   
   
   I've been really looking forward to putting in my own farm fountain when I know I'll be living at a place for more than 2 years at a time.